Adhyatma Vidya Mandir

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji addresses the doubts related to previous session on speaking truth, and in the latter half introduces the topic of objectivity and subjectivity. 

With regards to speaking truth, one of the questions raised is how to master the skill of speaking truth without not hurting others.  Pujya Swamiji responds how first we have to have the value to not hurt others and keep our intentions clean and make our best attempts.  It is pointed out how our interpretations are dependent on our impressions based on our history with different people, and thus there is likelihood of misinterpretations in our interactions with the world.  It is important to start fresh in all our interactions without basing the interaction with a judgement and certain conclusion about the other person.  How it is important to seek pardon, respecting the feeling of others, even when our intention was not to hurt the other person but the other person feels hurt.  Even if we may not feel the way the other person feels, respecting their feelings is part of non-violence. In our interaction we need to resolve how we didn’t intend to hurt others and be sensitive to the other person and communicate our intentions clearly and build on the relationships.  Our endeavor should not be just to increase the number of friends and relations, but to improve the quality of every relationship.  Pujya Swamiji also emphasizes how we need to be genuine in our endeavors when we seek pardon otherwise it would again lead to not speaking truth.  And it is the caring for the other person which should be the driving factor when we seek such pardon for it to be genuine.  Thus speaking truth requires use of appropriate words, and requires carefulness and alertness.

In the latter part the discussion on non-violence is summarized on how more consumption and more possession for pleasure results in violence.  How we have concluded that pleasure comes from the objects of the world.  Basically we seek happiness and see these objects of the world as means of pleasure. With this Pujya Swamiji transitions into a new topic of objectivity and subjectivity.  Pujya Swamiji points out how we have wrongly concluded that this world is a means of pleasure without applying reasoning or logic.  Even though we do have the faculty of reasoning and logic, right now we have a distorted reasoning.  Although we are able to apply reasoning well for objective things without any opinions, and we are impartial towards it, but when it comes to subjective things, our opinion about ourself, we are not open-minded, we are partial, we are manipulative.  So our scriptures help us to check and correct our reasoning and conclusions with regards to understanding ourself.

In this Sunday Morning Youth session, Pujya Swamiji talks about truth and non-violence as important values to inculcate in our life.  Pujya Swamiji points out that in life what is important is to travel in the right direction, and for that we need to make right choices. These values guide us to make the right choices and thus stay on track.

Pujya Swamiji provides here the basis for understanding and interpreting what truth and non-violence is in a given situation.  The two aspects: Truth as in speaking truth and non-violence at the physical level are essentially unfolded and how to understand and interpret these aspects in our life is elaborately discussed.  It is pointed out that speaking truth includes speaking pleasantly meaning being sensitive about the feelings of other people, respecting their feelings, refraining from doing something that will hurt their feelings, and speaking only if needed, meaning if it would be beneficial to the other person, or for the greater good.  Speaking truth requires strength and not hurting others requires sensitivity on our part.  Thus speaking truth makes us both a strong and sensitive person, and helps us understand and accommodate others in our life.  Observing our own self and looking at the events in our life, whether or not we bend the truth in certain circumstances, would help us understand the subtleness of truth in our life. 

In the latter part, Pujya Swamiji elaborates on non-violence at physical level, how consumption and possession are a mark of violence, because it deprives the others of their food.  Thus consuming and possessing just what we need, not over-consuming for our pleasure or enjoyment, is a value whereby we can be sensitive to the needs of other fellow beings and creatures, and address scarcity of resources by a simple act of minimizing our consumption and possession.

Om!